BMW is offering severance payments of up to 650,000 euros to employees willing to leave the company voluntarily. So many workers tried to sign up that the server gave out and new applications were temporarily stopped. The German carmaker prefers voluntary departures to layoffs, and the size of the payouts shows how badly it wants people to go quietly. A figure of 650,000 euros towers over what European firms usually pay in severance, which suggests the package is aimed at long-serving staff. BMW has been trimming costs as it pours money into electric models and wrestles with weak demand in China. Judging by the rush, plenty of employees have done their own arithmetic and decided a fat check beats staying put. The company has not said how many departures it is looking for or when the program closes.